An important cultural center during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, the rural town of Iznik (ancient Nicea) nestles on a lakeside in Northwest Turkey. Here in the early 16th century an "Imperial ware," now called Iznik, was made for the Istanbul court of the Ottoman Sultan--the richest, most powerful monarch in Europe. Originally inspired by Chinese pottery, Imperial ware was so exquisite that European collectors in the mid 19th century thought it came from Persia. Only in the 1920s…
